EARLY STEAM NAVIGATION. pro THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The
claims of Ramsey to share in the credit of the early development of steam navigation, referred to by Dr. Patterson in the Spectator of the 16th inst., are well known, and have always been recognised, both in this country and in America. Bennet Woodcroft in his paper on "Steam Navigation," published in the Transactions of the Society of Arts for 1847-48, which is really the first authoritative treatise on the subject, gives a full account of Rumsey's invention, and further details are to be found in the late Professor Thurston's "History of the Steam Engine."
The "Philosophical Society of London," to which Dr.
Patterson refers, was the Society of Arts, and it was in this house—very probably in the room in which Jam now writing— that Ramsey was struck down by the apoplectic attack which caused his death a few days, or hours, afterwards. It was not his own invention that Ramsey was explaining to the Society's Committee, but that of a friend.
The boat which he sailed on the Potomac in 1786 was not
a very practicable craft. The engine was employed to drive a great pump, which forced a stream of water aft ; and although this method of hydro-propulsion has since been the subject of numerous experiments with improved appliances, St has never been successful.
Dr. Patterson's account of Rumsey's proceedings in
London is not quite correct. He succeeded in attaining the object for which he came to London, and induced a wealthy American to provide capital for experiments. After two years' work the boat was nearly completed, when he died. This was in 1792. But in the following year the boat was finished, and was driven many times on the Thames. This no doubt was the boat referred to in the interesting paragraph from Carlyle's "Reminiscences" quoted in the Times Engineer- ing Supplement on the 3rd of this month. It was an improved form of his earlier vessel, but liable to the same objections.
It is of course quite unreasonable to speak of the invention
of the steamboat. Nobody invented the steamboat, any more than anybody invented the steam-engine. The application of steam power to marine propulsion was the result of a great many years' work by a great many men. Papin in 1707 made a paddle-boat to which he proposed to apply steam. This would certainly not have worked, because the steam-engine suggested by Papin was incapable of working. The Marquis de Jouffroy in 1783 experimented at Lyons with a paddle- wheel driven by means of a ratchet gear from a steam-engine.
Perhaps this was really the first vessel moved by steam power.
It has generally been held that the parent vessel of steam navigation was that of Miller, of Dalswinton, in Dumfries- shire. Miller in 1787 at the suggestion of Taylor, fitted a Symington engine into a double-hulled boat, and worked it on Dalswinton Lake.
The first practical steamboat was Symington's Charlotte Dundas.' This was a genuine steamboat of the modern type, and might have 'worked for years with nothing but ordinary repairs. It was tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1802, and would have been adopted for regular use on that canal but for the fear of the proprietors of damage to the banks, and also on the Bridgewater Canals but for the sudden death of the Duke of Bridgewater.
Then came Fulton with his ' Clermont ' in 1807. Those who are interested in such matters will find in Woodcroft's paper a full account of the sources whence Fulton obtained his information. The 'Clermont' was beyond much doubt merely a copy of the Charlotte Dundas.' Fulton was not an inventor in any sense. He merely "took hold of the business end of the transaction," collected all the information he could in England, bought an engine from Boulton and Watt, and fitted it in a hull. His is undoubtedly the credit of having made a practical commercial success of the steam- boat. His predecessors were experimenters, who all abandoned their experiments. He profited by their failures, and suc- ceeded where they failed. That is credit enough, and his admirers ought to be satisfied with that.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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